Effects of a secondary mental task and additional auditory feedback on body movements and EEG

Swapno Aditya; Adam Clarke; Lucy Armitage; Evangelos Pappas; Victoria Traynor; Winson Chiu-Chun Lee

doi:10.1007/s00221-026-07313-x

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Effects of a secondary mental task and additional auditory feedback on body movements and EEG

Swapno Aditya, Adam Clarke, Lucy Armitage, Evangelos Pappas, Victoria Traynor and Winson Chiu-Chun Lee

Experimental Brain Research, Vol.244(6), pp.1-11

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-026-07313-x

PMCID: PMC13139276

PMID: 42080995

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Abstract

dual task

biofeedback

electroencephalogram

movement analysis

Previous studies have shown that additional cognitive load from a secondary task can adversely affect movement performance. However, how externally provided auditory pacing influences motor and neural responses under dual-task conditions remains unclear. This study employed a repeated-measures experimental design, studying eighteen young adults (Mean age 23.5 ± 4 years) who underwent three conditions: (1) foot tapping only (single task), (2) foot tapping and a mental task (dual task), and (3) foot tapping, mental task, and auditory pacing biofeedback (dual task + biofeedback). Ankle joint movements using Xsens IMU's (Inertial Motion Units) and brain activities using EEG (electroencephalography) were measured in these three conditions. Results showed that dual tasks significantly reduced (p < 0.01) the range of motion and increased (p < 0.05) the variability of ankle joint range of motion, suggesting a decline in foot tapping performance compared to the single-task condition. The decline was accompanied by significant increases (p < 0.05) in relative high-beta power in EEG, consistent with heightened cognitive-motor demand during dual-tasking. In the dual-task + biofeedback condition, kinematic measures returned to values statistically indistinguishable from the single-task condition and response times in the cognitive task were significantly reduced, without a loss of accuracy. The relative high-beta power was also significantly reduced, compared with the dual-task condition, which may reflect increased entrainment to external cues or a reduction in cognitive load. These results support the role of auditory pacing in facilitating movement performance under dual-tasking conditions, while highlighting the need for future studies to dissociate entrainment effects from changes in cognitive workload.

Details

Title: Effects of a secondary mental task and additional auditory feedback on body movements and EEG
Authors: Swapno Aditya - University of Wollongong
Adam Clarke - University of Wollongong
Lucy Armitage - UNSW Sydney
Evangelos Pappas - RMIT University
Victoria Traynor - University of the Sunshine Coast
Winson Chiu-Chun Lee (Corresponding Author) - University of Wollongong
Publication details: Experimental Brain Research, Vol.244(6), pp.1-11
Publisher: Springer
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1007/s00221-026-07313-x
ISSN: 1432-1106
PMID: 42080995; PMC13139276
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Data Availability: The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
Grant note: This work was supported by a PhD research studentship and the Advancement & Equity Grants Scheme for Research (Project code: R6074) from the University of Wollongong.
Organisation Unit: Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; School of Health - Nursing
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991229027402621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Neurosciences

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